How Does Language Shape The Way We Think?

Boroditsky mentions the fact that language plays a primal role in shaping an individual's cognitive framework. Her arguments testify that without language, it would be nearly

Language can unify people. English has more than 1.9 billion competent speakers in the world. Charles Foran, author of “Lingua Franchise” calls English a compromise tongue. This means, “default neutral terrain for doing deals and making friends” (100). English is rapidly growing globally.

Since language is our means of communicating cultural knowledge, it is extremely important in this theory. Vygotsky was particularly interested in the relationship between language and thinking processes; he believed language was crucial for cognitive development.

Those who believe a shared language shows a country’s identity do so because of the cultural assimilation this provides. Because language is a large part of culture, to learn one language is to culturally unite all of those people in a country with the same shared language. Henry Ford, the creator of Ford automobiles, believed in such an ideal; he was even famous for his English school which taught newly-migrated immigrants to learn the “language of America” while also providing them with jobs and wages. However, shared language does not always mean unity. For example, even in the US where English makes up the majority of spoken language, there are always ideological disparities today between people—like the disparities between Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, and religious groups and non-religious groups. Likewise, multiple languages does not lend itself to disunity. Even the US Bill of Rights’s guaranteed protection of the “freedom of speech” is not limited to the English language, supporting the idea of a united yet pluralistic society. Throughout the years, though, there have been laws made in America that have either supported or gone against the use of only

Most questions of whether and how language shapes thought start with the simple observation that languages differ from one another. And a lot! Just look at the way people talk, they might say. Certainly, speakers of different languages must attend to strikingly different aspects of the world just so they can use their language properly.

“One of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time”, Federico Fellini once stated that “A different language is a different vision of life” and I, in my turn tend to say that he was perfectly right. A person who speaks more than one language can experience multiple personalities, visions and reflections consisting which language is he speaking. High School students should comprehend the real benefit of speaking a foreign language. Being a multilingual myself and speaking fluently four languages and studying another two, I consider that I am qualified enough to persuade that my argument is strong, plausible and not ultimately-right. In the following paragraphs I am going to address the following three reasons why should other High School students learn at least one foreign language? Firstly, learning a new language enhances performances in the academic domain and makes you smarter. Secondly, knowing a new language is a high estimated and a very valuable characteristic in your professional CV. Thirdly, international travel is more pleasant through knowing a foreign language.

Famous American anthropologist and social theorist Clyde Kluckholm , claims in one of his publication that “Every language is also a special way of looking at the world and interpreting experience concealed in the structure of language are a whole set of unconscious assumptions about the world and the life in it”(Writing logically, Thinking critically 7th edition P 35). Based on this theory, we can learn more

Linguistic relativity is the notion that language can affect our thought processes, and is often referred to as the ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’, after the two linguists who brought the idea into the spotlight. Whorf writes how “Language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual’s mental activity” (1956:212), and I will explain how it is able to do so. In this essay I will argue that certain ways of mental categorization, spatial cognition and reality interpretation, based on the characteristics of our specific variety of language, influence our perception of the world. I will discuss how languages divide up nature differently, and

Although there is no official language in the United States, the English language is the most widely spoken. Language helps to shape our identities, define and limit our expectations of the world around us and who we are. You might ask yourself, how does our language shape our identities and influence our perceptions of the world? Through language, we are able to make meaning, understand, and define ourselves. We are able to communicate what we feel, our ideas, our hopes, and our dreams with others who can respond to our feelings and thoughts. However, our choice of words cannot always capture what we are feeling to the full extent.

Originally published in the Wall Street Journal in 2010, Lera Boroditsky’s paper titled “Lost in Translation” analyzes the impact language has on thought. Formatted as more of a persuasive than truth seeking essay, Boroditsky begins by asking the reader if the language a person speaks shapes the way they think. This makes the reader believe as though she is truly trying to find an answer to this inquiry, but as the paper goes on, the reader is mostly introduced to evidence that supports Boroditsky’s stance and she merely touches upon the argument of the opposing side. Although Boroditsky does not include more counterarguments, “Lost in Translation” is a well written article which demonstrates that languages indeed shape the way people think through her use of the Rhetorical Triangle, inductive logic, and her stylistic choices.

No matter where you are in the world, you are taught about language. Whether it’s in your home learning your language or in school trying to learn a foreign language. Although while learning language the notion is never really thought about or brought up that the language and way we speak can influence the way we think and interact. Phycologist and neuroscientist alike have spent years, with multiple different tests to see if there is a connection between the various languages that are spoken and the way people not only think but also how they go about their daily lives. She writes to not only her colleagues and neuroscientists but also to anyone in the general public that is genuinely interested in the connection between

It is used as a bridge for linking two or more different groups. In communication, especially in bilingual and multilingual society, people have to deal with others in order to communicate successfully. Hence, Formkin, et.al (2003) argues that people make agreement to pick one language on deciding lingua franca in order to satisfy the desire of social and economic interaction. Therefore, we can infer that lingua franca facilitates communication for many purposes between people whose language is

Linguistics has impacted cognitive psychology as the quest to understand language acquisition and the structure of language itself is undertaken. Linguistics is a complex and multifaceted; it includes language structural patterns and language development (Barsalou, 2005). The process of language development is complicated and dense, as the study of language is examined; the role of cognition is inherently examined and analyzed. Sternberg (2006) also explores language as an innate process and presents the idea that humans are born ready for language as a biological and cognitive process.

Research by Lera Boroditsky (2001) posed many interesting questions regarding linguistic diversity and the resultant interplay between language and thought: whether linguistic diversity stimulates different ways of thinking, whether learning new languages changes the way one thinks, whether bilingual and multilingual people think differently when speaking different languages. Clark (2003) maintains that although language does not indicate a complete map of consciousness or thought, it is at least a “representational map” that varies across languages.

All these reasons result in social interaction between speakers of different language, which helps predict language contact may result in multilingualism. It is estimated that over half of all countries are multilingual. An example of a multilingual society is Switzerland with three main languages: French, German and Italian and each language is dominant area of its own. John Edwards believes that everyone is bilingual, even if someone can only speak or understand, he believes that you have “some ‘command’ of a foreign tongue” therefore there is no clear monolingual country. Therefore multilingualism is useful in showing how the social interaction between people of different languages help us predict the linguistic results of language contact as it is an example of what happens when multiple languages exist and interact in the same country.